July 02, 2009
Elizabeth Cross
Queen Elizabeth II will honour the loss of armed forces families whose loved ones have been killed in operations or by terrorist action since World War II. The Queen has been badly served by her ministers since the War and consequently the time of her reign may be remembered as a disaster (if our new masters choose to remember it at all). But this is a good idea.
In this light, the Elizabeth Cross is not only a worthy gesture; it is a kind of elegy for honour, duty and sacrifice, concepts foreign to what England has been made by small men, by misguided idealists and by the writ of orc scrolls in those parts of the land where Her Majesty's reign has been ceded to a hyper-modern Dark Age.
It follows a precedent set after the first and second world wars. Families of those killed in World War I were given a scroll and a memorial plaque, while a scroll was given to families of those who died in World War II and the Korean War.
To thy unhappy coast repair
The UK's aircraft carrier program is now one billion pounds over budget.
Say goodbye to the Royal Navy.
Work on the two warships - HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales - had been delayed in December but was due to begin soon.
By their fruits shall ye know them: Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa. Canadian Flea-readers should take little comfort in the news; our violence rate places sixth in the top ten with double the reported rate in the United States. I blame sociology.
Arrested, beaten and raped
An Iranian "protester's tale" is yet another example of rape as part of the judicial process in today's Iran. This is standard operating procedure for Iran's police and security services. These are the men with whom Obama wants to "negotiate".
"I was kept in a van till evening that day and then transferred to a solitary cell where I was kept for two days," he said. "Then I was repeatedly interrogated, beaten and hung from a ceiling. They call it chicken kebab. They tie your hands and feet together and hang you from the ceiling, turning you around and beating you with cables.
It gets worse.
Related: The Iranian government is blaming the British embassy for fomenting the recent protests. Note to British embassy staff: It is time to leave; nobody will try to save you if you fall afoul of the left's current favourite victim tyranny. And heaven forbid you be caught smoking on television.
July 01, 2009
For reals
I'm a runner: Sarah Palin.
No wonder Sarah Palin is the nightmare of "the left". This is Terminator Barbie. And you know I mean that in a good way (via Hot Air, with thanks).
Commentary
Those few of you who have fought your way through my comment defense system will have noticed the system is still down. My apologies. I will take a look under the hood but, frankly, I do not put much hope in making it work. I will see if I can disable them completely if I cannot get them up and running again.
What's good for General Motors is good for Obama
Doctor Zero of Ace of Spades HQ describes America's transition to socialism. Free market types need not despair for the future; capitalism is alive and well in China.
If only for the moment. As mainland China gets wealthier I expect it will be able to afford its own Frankfurt School fifth column of arts and social science departments in short order.
This is brilliant stuff, btw. RTWT.
Under Obama, a final transformation is taking place: the government no longer sees itself as an expense borne by its citizens. Instead, the citizens are now seen as components of the State. If the State decides to follow the religion of global warming, the citizens will be made to pay tithe, no matter what their personal beliefs are. If the State thinks only its wise stewardship can “save” the financial industry, banks will be forced to accept government money and controls. If the State believes private health insurance is not inexpensive or comprehensive enough, it will create its own insurance program… and force everyone who does not participate to subsidize it. If the State decides an auto company must be kept in business, for the benefit of a union that has essentially become a component of the State, then all other Americans will be compelled to finance that auto company. People joke bitterly about being forced to buy cars from Government Motors someday, but the situation is far more outrageous: we all work for Government Motors already, through hundreds of dollars in subsidies extracted from our tax payments. Depending on how much you earn per hour, you’ve spent ten or twenty hours working for GM this year, and they’ll probably conscript you again before the year is through.
Related even though Canadian socialists still think Obama is their friend: Canada becomes a tax haven and Tim Hortons comes back home.
June 30, 2009
I think I know where this is headed
Japanese spaceship Kaguya has detected uranium on the Moon.
...
The findings could help decide where to build future lunar colonies, since manned outposts will need energy, and could potentially derive it from nuclear power plants.
Just take care with your recycling programs.
Related: Hot women of Space: 1999.
Update: Mike Campbell offers another possible destination.
A fairly big deal
Commenting on Japan Times editorial, Dancing with the dragon, John Opie claims the Obama administration whose incoherent foreign policy is governed by the two poles of domestic cronyism and sucking up to China (both links via White Peril).
For most countries, the US Ambassador is a fairly big deal, representing the US in that country. Sending a party hack or giving the post away to one of the party faithful is a clear sign of disinterest that many countries recognize and while they may not like this, there is virtually nothing they can do.
Sending these Ambassadors sends a clear message: you're not really very important. Remember who has been Ambassador to Japan in the past: President G.H.W. Bush (aka Bush 41) was Ambassador there way back when. That is the quality of people you send, not an internet and biotechnology lawyer who just happened to be one of President Obama's premier fundraisers.
Another difference that makes a difference: Japan and India are both democracies. Mainland China practices a system of government preferred by Obama and his supporters in the establishment left.
June 29, 2009
Manchurian
President Barack Hussein* Obama has yet to condemn the mullahs. He has been awful quick to side with Castro and Chavez against regime change in Honduras.
"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
* I think we all have a dispensation for that one after Cairo.
Update: How Obama got his groove back.
According to Fausta (and most others, apart from Obama and Hugo Chavez), Zelaya was the one attempting to illegally engineer a coup, attempting to re-write the Constitution through ballot initiative despite the fact that the Constitution disallows such maneuvers six months before a scheduled election. Like Chavev, he sought to erase term limits on himself and become, per the bad old Latin American tradition, El Jefe for Life.
Who opposed him? Well, the military, for one, which refused to distribute his ballots, because they were illegal. The courts, which ruled the ballots were illegal and the attempt to rewrite the constitution so close to an upcoming election impermissible. His own party, which similarly felt Zelaya was breaking the law, executing a "self-coup."
On the other hand, there's Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez.
The military acted pursuant to a court order.
RTWT.
Most Canadians struggle to identify Canadian icons
A trickier question is why anyone should be bothered.
The online survey conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Dominion Institute was released in time for Canada's 142nd birthday. But there's little in the findings to celebrate. Most Canadians -- 88 per cent -- could name international pop star Celine Dion from a photograph, and 77 per cent correctly named Wayne Gretzky.
But a paltry 19 per cent could identify the father of Medicare Tommy Douglas, sometimes considered the greatest Canadian, and only 27 per cent could name Metis leader Louis Riel.
Because knowing what Tommy Douglas' face looks like is... actually, we have no need for this information. I would be happier if the Dominion Institute encouraged Canadians to consider the meaning of the words "free health care".
Update: Chris Taylor via email.
One wonders, if we were to make a similar quiz for Americans, would the professions be weighted with such a heavy slant to politics? Which solitary American performer would make the cut—Elvis Presley, Clara Bow, Nat 'King' Cole or Scarlett Johansson? And who would be the lone civil rights activist? Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King? Would the single captain of industry be Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, Juan Trippe, or Bill Gates? And the sole artist should be Frederic Remington, Norman Rockwell, Louis Comfort Tiffany or Man Ray?
Canadian history also has a similar galaxy of notable stars, but we don't get taught about them at all. In this country, they are invisible to educators and historians alike.
To be blunt the Dominion Institute's icons list are heavily weighted in favour of history nerds who idolize politicians. Being a history nerd, naturally I got 10/10, but I am not a big fan of politicians. Politicians may get the glory, but it is the blood sweat and tears of ordinary Joes that makes a country run. And I fully understand that regular civilians who spend most of their waking hours focusing on things other than history and politics are naturally not going to give a damn. Whole sectors of achivement get left out of Canadian social studies education. Successful Canadian businessmen? Ha. Sure, we hear about businessmen when they are fitted into the narrative of political initiative (like the transcontinental railroad) or social change (like the Winnipeg General Strike). But ordinary joes climbing out of obscurity to become titans in their fields? Never. Did anybody ever hear the names Edward Robert Peacock, Ezra Butler Eddy, K.C. Irving or Grant McConachie in high school history? Of course not. They didn't devote themselves to serving a political purpose, nor become an object lesson on how not to treat the proletariat. They are outside the narrative.
I have some respect for the Dominion Institute since they periodically remind the public of the existence of Canadian history, but their time would be more profitably spent widening the scope of Canadian history education, and not bemoaning the fact that everyone forgets the boring, heavily distorted narrative that we all get crammed into our heads at younger ages. If anything, that's a bit of a blessing. We'd all be NDP voters otherwise.
But not for thee
Daily Mail Deputy Political Editor, Tim Shipman, introduces Labour's British homes for British workers policy.
Let's see if understand this correctly. "British homes for British workers" prioritizes the British over immigrants and asylum seekers and, as such, addresses a far-right grievance held by former Labour voters wooed by the British National Party.
Some questions: How does Labour introducing the same far-right policy - especially with this Orwellian name - change its presumed racism? Further, why does the Daily Mail deputy political editor not feel it necessary to describe the perceived unfairness which sees immigrants with large families vault to the top of the council house list? Or are we all meant to intuitively grasp such unfairness (and as such intuitively empathize with this far-right policy)?
Finally, what other policy inspiration is Gordon Brown's Labour party planning to take from the BNP?
For too many in the West, surrender is indeed an option
For Canadian Flea-readers, the following theme needs no introduction; Norway's Discrimination Act and the culture from which it springs will sound all too familiar.
That it has come to this in politically progressive Norway makes Surrender urgent reading. It also serves to bolster Bawer’s chief contention: that many in Europe, and to a lesser extent in the United States, are prepared to roll back essential civil liberties in order to pacify (or so they hope) Muslim radicals. Bawer embarks on a broad offensive, counting leading political, religious, and academic figures among the defeatists. Mainly, though, he directs his rhetorical fire at the press. In their eagerness to forfeit the free-speech rights on which they depend—whether through self-censorship or through craven reporting that casts avowed Islamists as “moderates”—journalists may present the most agonizing illustration of Bawer’s theme that, for too many in the West, surrender is indeed an option.
Cabin Crew: Star To Fall
June 28, 2009
Queen: I want to break free
On an unrelated note: My comments are still fried and I do not see a quick fix. My apologies for the inconvenience.
LGBTTIQQ2S Day
I expect the only reason Stephen Harper will not be off to repeat his grotesque bid to trade anti-gay religious sentiment for votes in the 905 is that there can hardly be a group of Muslims still willing to listen to him. But an alternative outcome for today's events occurs to me; one of potential interest to those of us frustrated not only by our Prime Minister but by Canadian identity politics in general as Toronto ponders rain for today's 29th Annual Pride Parade.
What used to be gay pride day is now meant to celebrate Canada's LGBTTIQQ2S (I had to look it up) communities (and, of course, their families and friends). But the new nomenclature suggests the event has been hijacked by a progressive will toward an apartheid based identity politics* and that strange fascination of the left for categorizing to death the complex fullness of the world.
Who knows? Perhaps once Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Intersex, Queer, Questioning and 2 Spirited identities become insufficiently tortuous boxes to squeeze people into, these groups will splinter yet again into their constituent parts - individual people in all their peculiarity - and we will at last have something for everyone to celebrate.
* Made worse by the scheduled appearance of anti-Semites in the parade. Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) will protest the only place in the Middle East where they would be safe to protest, turn the word "apartheid" on its head and prove once again that anti-racism is the new racism.
Update with a note to the "free" "Palestine" contingent: Just because you are carrying a terrorist flag does not mean we can't tell you are all International Socialists in "third world" drag. Also, and despite your signs to the contrary, anti-Zionism is racism. Notable by their absence: Queers Against Saudi Apartheid, Queers Against Egyptian Apartheid, Queers Against Persian Apartheid, Queers Against Pakistani Apartheid...
Kudos to the Israel contingent earlier in the parade. It is still safe to travel to Israel and, yes, we should all love Israel because Israel loves us. So too should everyone who marched in that parade. Anyone who believes anything to the contrary should try the same act in the streets of Tehran.
Armed Forces Day
Secretary of State for Scotland, Jim Murphy, described as "sickening" a noisy protest by a small number of Irish republicans objecting to Britain's first Armed Forces Day (formerly Veterans Day). I may have shared his opinion had I been exposed to the protesters myself though how anyone can express the least surprise at Irish republicans objecting to Her Majesty's armed forces is beyond me.
Far more sickening is the apparent nonchalance evinced by his government at the current state of Her Majesty's armed forces. The first Type 45 destroyer is to set to sea without a fully operational air defence system while a "black hole" in defence funding may sink what is left of the Royal Navy and with it much of the UK's nuclear deterrent.
They argue that Britain should no longer struggle to maintain a full range of defence capability like the US and instead consider scrapping up to £24bn of future "big ticket" projects - including two new aircraft carriers, the F35 joint strike fighters designed to fly from them, six new Type 45 destroyers, four new Astute hunter-killer submarines and the replacement of the Vanguard submarines carrying Trident.
While they are at it, I shall consider cutting my passport in half and mailing it to Buckingham Palace.
June 27, 2009
Heirs to Fortuyn
Defend the rights of women and you are a racist. Defend gay men from violence and you are racist. Defend the right of Muslims to be free from their own extremists and you are a racist. Bruce Bawer documents massive Muslim immigration to Europe and massive support for sharia law, for jihad and a contempt for their host nations, let alone their values.
Non-Muslims aren’t the only targets of Muslim violence. A mountain of evidence suggests that the rates of domestic abuse in these enclaves are astronomical. In Germany, reports Der Spiegel, “a disproportionately high percentage of women who flee to women’s shelters are Muslim”; in 2006, 56 percent of the women at Norwegian shelters were of foreign origin; Deborah Scroggins wrote in The Nation in 2005 that “Muslims make up only 5.5 percent of the Dutch population, but they account for more than half the women in battered women’s shelters.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch advocate for democracy and women’s rights, would no doubt say far more than half: when she was working with women in Dutch shelters, she writes, “there were hardly any white women” in them, “only women from Morocco, from Turkey, from Afghanistan—Muslim countries—alongside some Hindu women from Surinam.” When she and filmmaker Theo van Gogh tried to highlight the mistreatment of women under Islam in the 2004 film Submission: Part I, he was killed by a young Muslim extremist.
More and more Western Europeans, recognizing the threat to their safety and way of life, have turned their backs on the establishment, which has done little or nothing to address these problems, and begun voting for parties—some relatively new, and all considered right-wing—that have dared to speak up about them. One measure of the dimensions of this shift: owing to the rise in gay-bashings by Muslim youths, Dutch gays—who ten years ago constituted a reliable left-wing voting bloc—now support conservative parties by a nearly two-to-one margin.
June 26, 2009
The death of Captain Eo
Yes, Michael Jackson was arrested and charged with child molestation but then he cared about love and peace and he loved children, etc. so all cultures are beautiful and it's all relative, right? Let he who voted for Obama cast the first stone.* One can only imagine the pain of Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II this morning or, indeed, most mornings.
Leading up to a much anticipated London concert series, Peter Conrad discussed Michael Jackson's freaky talent. I believe the following captures much of Jackson's brio and the genesis of Jackson's weltschmerz.
How often have I asked myself the same question? Without further ado: A Michael Jackson video you may not have seen umpteen times.
* I was probably the only person who thought that was funny the first time I wrote it.
How an Indie Musician can make $19,000 in 10 hours using Twitter
Off to study Amanda Palmer's Twitternomics. Warren Ellis posts a retweet by way of summary.
cash made by @amandapalmer in one month on Twitter = $19,000; cash made by @amandapalmer from 30,000 record sales = $0
The devil is in them
Information Dissemination identifies an alarming technical detail of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) reported to be by Red China; second stage control fins which would make this a ballistic missile without a fixed trajectory.
You see, if the launch is accurately detected, trajectory can be determined based on the launch. When we shoot our SM-3, because ballistic missiles have a fixed trajectory, our interceptor knows where the missile is going to be and can intercept it.
But if a ballistic missile changes course in flight, our AEGIS BMD interceptor finds itself in the wrong place, because it calculated the intercept based on the initial trajectory, not the new trajectory following the mid-course change.
This technical detail is why I call bullshit with the Navy's suggestion that we have a critical need for more DDG-51s specifically for ballistic missile defense. The Burke is not capable of intercepting this ballistic missile, and we are going to need a new radar that can track the mid-course change accurately, and new software to very quickly do the math for identifying a new intercept point if we are going to defeat this weapon. That is going to be enormously expensive, which is why when I say I think the Navy is going to need $6 billion nuclear cruisers if they are going to evolve ballistic missile defense towards 21st century threats, I'm not kidding.
Update: Chris Taylor responds via email.
We could always use that other integral part of AEGIS BMD, the ability to intercept targets in the terminal (i.e. final) phase, rather than an earlier phase (like midcourse). In other words, wait until after the second stage does it manouvre, then plonk the warhead. It just means you probably won't get a lot of second chances; the first volley has to matter.
Also, the missile doesn't have to do much in the way of target search. You can have some dopey trawler or sub shadow the target and give you a halfway-decent lat/long fix. In the sixteen minutes it will take for the ASBM to reach its target 3000km distant at mach 10, a carrier is not going to move a few hundred miles at 30 knots max speed. It will move 8 nautical miles at best. What are the odds you can develop a seeker/terminal guidance sensor small enough to fit into the 1.4m diameter of a DF-21 ASBM, but big enough to have a search range of say, 16nm? 1.4m is big enough to put a fullblown F-22-style AN/APG-77 AESA array (0.98m diameter) in there with a detection and targeting range of 125 nm.
I dunno what to make of it really. None of the concerns he has raised seem to be insurmountable technical challenges for either side.
Another update: I should explain my comments system appears to be having some sort of indigestion. Consequently, I am posting another response via email; this from Armored Facilities Manager.
Initial trajectories will be off, but if the Ballistic missile is launched at the Surface Action group itself, then there will be very little ballistic correction to make.
I have to wonder whether SM-2 would in fact do the job neatly.
The other aspect is that the guidance is mostly software. I doubt that the folks at Hughes are sitting on their backsides NOT coming up with tweaks to effect positive intercepts of a maneuvering terminal ballistic missile were there a problem.
Note, SM-3 intercepted a satellite which was in effect maneuvering a touch due to atmospheric effects on it's irregular shape. They HAD to do final calculations to get the hit to kill warhead on the satellite.
June 25, 2009
The shape of things to come
Drone pilot trainees are now the majority in the United States Air Force.
Egypt's Grand Imam says burka not obligatory in Islam
Egypt's Grand Imam, Sheikh Mohammad Tantawi, says the face veil is not compulsory in Islam and says every head of state had the right to accept or prohibit it.* Which should end the argument so far as Canada's human rights heresy commissions are concerned. But won't.
The burka debate has been raging for a while in Europe with countries like the Netherlands banning it in universities and the British press reporting that Muslims and non-Muslims alike are calling for a ban on the face covering attire.
* Which means he is obviously a racist and a tool of the Americans. /sarcasm
President Obama's Persian tutorial
Calling him "no Wilsonian", Fouad Ajami schools Barack Obama. Indeed, with realpolitik back on the agenda, I would say the best word which comes to mind for the Obama administration thusfar is "Nixonian".
Little more than three decades ago, Jimmy Carter, another American president convinced that what had come before him could be annulled and wished away, called on the nation to shed its "inordinate fear of communism," and to put aside its concern with "traditional issues of war and peace" in favor of "new global issues of justice, equity and human rights." We had betrayed our principles in the course of the Cold War, he said, "fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is quenched with water." The Soviet answer to that brave, new world was the invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979.
Cut to the current debacle, with laugh track (so as to prevent tears).
